Lyon/Geneva,
12 December 2013 –
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC),

the
specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization, today released the
latest data on cancer incidence, mortality, and prevalence worldwide1.The
new version of IARC’s online database, GLOBOCAN 2012, provides the most recent
estimates for 28 types of cancer in 184 countries worldwide and offers a
comprehensive overview of the global cancer burden.

GLOBOCAN
2012 reveals striking patterns of cancer in women and highlights that priority

should be
given to cancer prevention and control measures for breast and cervical cancers

globally.

Global
burden rises to 14.1 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer deaths in 2012

According
to GLOBOCAN 2012, an estimated 14.1 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million

cancer-related
deaths occurred in 2012, compared with 12.7 million and 7.6 million,
respectively, in 2008. Prevalence estimates for 2012 show that there were 32.6
million people (over the age of 15 years) alive who had had a cancer diagnosed
in the previous five years.

The most
commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide were those of the lung (1.8 million, 13.0%
of the total), breast (1.7 million, 11.9%), and colorectum (1.4 million, 9.7%).
The most common causes of cancer death were cancers of the lung (1.6 million,
19.4% of the total), liver (0.8 million, 9.1%), and stomach (0.7 million,
8.8%).

Projections
based on the GLOBOCAN 2012 estimates predict a substantive increase to

19.3
million new cancer cases per year by 2025, due to growth and ageing of the
global

population.
More than half of all cancers (56.8%) and cancer deaths (64.9%) in 2012
occurred in less developed regions of the world, and these proportions will
increase further by 2025.

Sharp
rise in breast cancer worldwide

In 2012,
1.7 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer and there were 6.3 million
women alive who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous five
years. Since the 2008 estimates, breast cancer incidence has increased by more
than 20%, while mortality has increased by 14%. Breast cancer is also the most
common cause of cancer death among women (522 000 deaths in 2012) and the most
frequently diagnosed cancer among women in 140 of 184 countries worldwide. It
now represents one in four of all cancers in women.

“Breast
cancer is also a leading cause of cancer death in the less developed countries
of the

world. This
is partly because a shift in lifestyles is causing an increase in incidence,
and partly

because
clinical advances to combat the disease are not reaching women living in these
regions,” says Dr David Forman, Head of the IARC Section of Cancer Information,
the group that compiles the global cancer data.

Generally,
worldwide trends show that in developing countries going through rapid societal
and economic changes, the shift towards lifestyles typical of industrialized
countries leads to a rising burden of cancers associated with reproductive,
dietary, and hormonal risk factors.

Incidence
has been increasing in most regions of the world, but there are huge
inequalities

between
rich and poor countries. Incidence rates remain highest in more developed
regions, but mortality is relatively much higher in less developed countries
due to a lack of early detection and access to treatment facilities. For
example, in western Europe, breast cancer incidence has reached more than 90
new cases per 100 000 women annually, compared with 30 per 100 000 in eastern
Africa. In contrast, breast cancer mortality rates in these two regions are
almost identical, at about 15 per 100 000, which clearly points to a later
diagnosis and much poorer survival in eastern Africa.

“An urgent
need in cancer control today is to develop effective and affordable approaches
to the early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer among women
living in less developed countries,” explains Dr Christopher Wild, Director of
IARC. “It is critical to bring morbidity and mortality in line with progress
made in recent years in more developed parts of the world.”

Cervical cancer, an avoidable cause
of death among women in sub-Saharan Africa

With 528 000 new cases every year,
cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer affecting women worldwide,
after breast, colorectal, and lung cancers; it is most notable in the
lower-resource countries of sub-Saharan Africa. It is also the fourth most
common cause of cancer death (266 000 deaths in 2012) in women worldwide.
Almost 70% of the global burden falls in areas with lower levels of
development, and more than one fifth of all new cases are diagnosed in India.

“Cervical cancer can have
devastating effects with a very high human, social, and economic cost,
affecting women in their prime. But this disease should not be a death
sentence, even in poor countries,” explains Dr Rengaswamy Sankaranarayanan, a
lead investigator for an IARC research project with a focus on cervical cancer
screening in rural India. “Low-tech and inexpensive screening tools exist and
could significantly reduce the burden of cervical cancer deaths right now in
less developed countries.”

In sub-Saharan Africa, 34.8 new
cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed per 100 000 women annually, and 22.5 per
100 000 women die from the disease. These figures compare with 6.6 and 2.5 per
100 000 women, respectively, in North America. The drastic differences can be
explained by lack of access to effective screening and to services that
facilitate early detection and treatment.

“These
findings bring into sharp focus the need to implement the tools already
available for cervical cancer, notably HPV vaccination combined with
well-organized national programmes for screening and treatment,” stresses Dr
Wild.

Note to the Editor

The online GLOBOCAN 2012 resource at
http://globocan.iarc.fr/is easy
to use and has facilities to produce maps and other graphics. In addition, a
series of fact sheets describe the overall cancer burden within specific areas
or countries. GLOBOCAN 2012 also provides the user with facilities to predict
the future cancer incidence and mortality burden over the next 20 years
according to projected population ageing and population growth.

These estimates are based on the
most recent data available at IARC and on information publicly available on the
World Wide Web. GLOBOCAN 2012 provides a global profile of cancer that has been
developed using a number of methods that are dependent on the availability and
the accuracy of the data. National sources are used where possible, with local
data and statistical modelling used in their absence.